[Ham-Computers] Can You Help Somebody Who Is Blind?

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Hi All,

I still have some external and internal speech devices that might be of use 
to a legally blind or totally blind or print handicapped person that you may 
know. These will work with DOS or Windows. All do require screen reading 
software, however!

Briefly: The screen reading software "reads" the characters on the CRT, if 
in DOS, the ASCII values, if in Windows, the GUI characters, and translates 
it into a speakable form. This data is then fed to the speech output device, 
the speech synthesizer, and converted into an auditory voice. Some are quite 
robotic sounding, others are reasonably human like.

You can vary the rate of the speech, the volume, the tone and much much 
more.

I have two hardware units by Street Electronics called the ECHO PC. It sold 
new for $250. It connects to COM#1 and is a RS232 device running at 9600 
baud. Eight data bits, no paridy, one stop bit. Hence, to use the ECHO PC a 
serial port, COM#1, is needed.

I also have the Sounding Board by G.W. Micro. It is an internal card and 
sold new for $400. It works the best with the screen reading software 
package sold by G.W. Micro called Vocal-Eyes. This sold new for $425. 
However, I believe it is now given away, as few people use DOS. Hence, I can 
supply you a copy N/C!

I also have the Accent SA external speech synthesizer. It sold new for $800. 
It too connects to a serial port, generally COM#1. Both the ECHO PC and the 
Accent SA can have their dip switch settings altered for a different baud 
rate, such as 4800.

I can not give away any of the Windows screen reading software. The one I 
use, is by Freedom Scientific and is called JAWS For Windows. It sells for 
$895. (The "JAWS" refers to Job Access With Speech, not the Great White 
Shark!) While I do have instructional tapes I could supply somebody, which I 
bought new, and I can provide free tech support by landline to those in 
need, I can not give away either JAWS For Windows or the G.W. Micro program 
titled "Windows-Eyes".

Before you dismiss the devices that can still use DOS screen reading 
software, hear me! DOS has almost ZERO restrictions as to what it can read 
on the CRT and what a clever user can cause it to read! The flexibility and 
ability to be adapted to a wide range of needs is almost limitless! The 
exact opposite is true of Windows! The GUI, (Graphic User Interface) is 
extremely difficult to convert to LPC (Linear Predictive Codeing) and then 
to TTS, (Text To Speech). It took five years, people, five long years, 
before any third party developer was able to put together a workable screen 
reading program to work with Windows when it was first released! The blind, 
or print handicapped, were five years behind when they first got started!

Even more frustrating, or discouraging, the cost was, and still is, so high 
that nine out of ten blind people can not afford the software and/or 
hardware to make their computer talk.

Consider this. I was using a Compaq 233 MHZ Pentium #1 with 128 Meg of RAM 
and Windows 95B. The DOS screen reading package cost me $450 and the Windows 
screen reading software cost me $795. (DOS and Windows each require their 
own screen reading software, as how they work is almost completely 
different!) The hardware speech synthesizer, the DECTALK PC sold new for 
$1195, I bought it at $815 wholesale. All of this is needed to use the 
computer in DOS and Windows!

Then to scan a piece of regular post office variety of mail and read it, 
well that requires another program. It is called Arkenstone OpenBook 
Unbound. It sold for $995 for the software and an additional $395 for the HP 
3P black/white flat bed scanner. While it did not require any screen reading 
software, as it contained its own, it still required the hardware synthetic 
speech card.

I should mention here, that the DECTALK PC card was also available as a 
stand alone hardware device called the DECTALK Express. However, it sold for 
the same price as the internal card, or $1000+ retail.

Now to use my computer as you gentlemen do, I had to spend $3,450 for the 
needed software and hardware. As you may recall when the P1 running at 233 
MHZ was state of the art, the system with a 15 inch color monitor sold for 
about $2250.

Braille is probably the single most beneficial product ever created for the 
blind. Now we need to keep in mind that only about half of the blind read 
Braille! Why? The majority of those who are blind, are legally blind. The 
majority of these are people who are middle age and beyond. Those having 
Diabetes have dull fingertip sensitivity due to nerve damage caused by the 
disease. Hence, despite the many benefits Braille afforded the blind over 
the decades, about half the populus could not use it. Now admitedly, some of 
the blind were simply too darn proud to accept help, no matter the form, no 
matter the source, no matter the benefit. They would rather cross a busy 
urban street using a White Cane then let a sighted person guide them across 
the dangerous street. As a result, many got flattened like a pancake the 
circus fat lady sat upon, or some died when they fell into open man holes in 
the pavement.

The computer with synthetic speech opened doors for the blind never before 
possible! All of a sudden, a blind person could write their own checks with 
a computer and printer, print an envelope to mail a letter in, type and read 
a letter by themselves, sort and organize all sorts of items into databases 
and look anything up as needed without sighted help etc. The computer with 
synthetic speech offered all the help that Braille gave so many, maybe even 
more. This was in DOS.

When Windows hit the screen, the hope for the blind evaporated like cold 
drinks at a Biker's picnic held on the local desert! The more Windows was 
improved, the more the blind could "NOT" do! EBAY, for instance. I used to 
be able to use it, but not any longer. Then there was an alternate text 
version, but one day EBAY management made it go away. Who knows why.

I worked with one of their programmers, Mason Nuggent, on developing ways 
for low vision, the blind and print handicapped individuals could use EBAY. 
He did great work, came up with some routines that made EBAY work and it 
looked very promising. Then one day, his contact phone and e-mail went dead. 
He vanished. The text version of EBAY, and the option on the screen to use 
it, also vanished. None ever reappeared!

So here are the handicapped, most of which have an income at, or below, the 
national poverty level of about $10,000 being forced to spend over five 
thousand dollars just to have and use a computer, or go without. Think about 
this people! YOU spent less than two grand for a state of the art system, 
and probably got a color printer or scanner or ... thrown in. The blind 
person had to spend an additional $1,450 minimum to get the computer to 
speak in the DOS mode! Windows was another $795! The scanning of regular 
mail or a book page or anything printed using typewriter style of font, now 
that was another $1,395+ They could NOT afford it!

Contrary to what you may have heard or thought, the states and federal 
government do "NOT" give blind people anything! You either buy it yourself, 
or you go without.

I got so angry over this, that I spent one year of my life writing a talking 
word processing program called "Speech Writer". It sold for $75. It 
contained the Text To Speech code, that Texas Instruments Inc. developed and 
I worked on as a third party person, so the blind did not have to spend 
another $550 for a DOS speech program to make the computer talk! I was told 
by all the experts at IBM, among others, that what I was going to do was 
simply impossible. Well, they do not know the old blind Wizard! I found 
ways, I invented means, and I made it work! Now any blind person, or sighted 
person for that matter, could purchase a word processing program that would 
talk for $75. Just put the 5.25 inch 360K diskette in the A: drive and 
enjoy!

The Speech Writer software used 29K of RAM for the program and another 32K 
for storage of the current text files. Simply put, it ran in less than 64 K! 
It ran at 4.77 MHZ The 360 K diskette not only contained the entire Speech 
Writer program and Text To Speech code, but also had over 295 K of RAM 
available to store files on!

Can you guess what happened when Speech Writer hit the market in 1985? IBM 
went ballistic, as did a few other BIG heavy long ball hitters. This blind 
guy in Michigan had just shown the entire world it was possible to write 
programs that talked for under a hundred bucks and made the need to spend 
$550 for the screen reading software totally unnecessary! I killed their 
market! So the mail soon delivered numerous legal notices to me to "cease 
and decist" etc.

I could not fight companies of giant proportions, so I did stop selling 
Speech Writer. However, I found a legal loophole and made Speech Writer a 
Freeware program! Legally they could not touch me! I smiled, a lot! As my 
goal of showing the world, especially third party developers, that it was 
both possible and cost effective to write programs for the blind at a 
reasonable price. Many did. This benefited not just the blind, but those 
with all forms of handicapps. I did not make much money, less than a 
thousand dollars, but I still believe that the year of my life I devoted to 
creating Speech Writer to show it was realistic, was time well spent!

If you know of someone who has a computer, is blind to the point that he/she 
can not read the CRT, perhaps one of these synthesizers will be of benefit 
to them.

I still use software everyday that I wrote in 1983 - 1986! I wrote them to 
perform specific tasks and they did them beautifully in 1984 and they still 
do them beautifully in 2007! All of what I wrote for myself is available 
free of charge to anyone.

Incidentally, all of the software that I wrote works for either the sighted 
or the blind! It also has full documentation, print only. It is an ASCII 
file so any computer OS can read it.

I would like to find a good home for the synthesizers and software that I 
have here on a shelf. So if you know of a blind or print handicapped person 
who could benefit, please contact me. FYI: "print handicapped" means a 
person with normal eyesight who is unable to read for various neurological 
reasons.

Thanks to all!

Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net